In Jesus Holy Name December 4, 2022
Advent II Text: Luke 2:8-14 Redeemer
“Peace in the Heart of Christmas”
Christmas can be a crazy time. All we want is peace. The world wants peace in Ukraine but can it be found? I’m sure there are some families who dread the holidays. They are worried that there will be no peace at their Christmas family dinner. It would be a wonderful celebration if, within our own homes there was a cease-fire on anger & arguments. Could peace be experienced if there was a moratorium on disrespect. How people’s lives would be different, without stress, if a truce could be called on all family conflicts. Peace in our homes, peace on the streets of our cities is the desire of many.
Can the words of the angels to the shepherds become reality? “Peace On Earth and Goodwill to Mankind?” Yes, it is a great dream. But human beings can not and are not able to create peace on earth. Millions of Chinese are standing in the streets of their cities, quietly holding a blank piece of paper in silent peaceful protest. Unfortunately the human desire for power and control will rule the halls of our U.S. capital, the streets of Chicago, Beijing and Shanghai.
In the middle of World War I, the only moment of peace came on Christmas Eve, 1914. A British soldier wrote these words: “ miles and miles from home. Cold, wet and covered with mud there didn’t seem the slightest chance of leaving …except in and ambulance. About 10 p.m. I heard German soldiers singing the songs of Christmas. Someone from the German trenches shouted:
…”come on over”…someone responded… “I’ll come half way if you come half way.” Before long thousands of soldiers climbed out of the muddy trenches, traded cigarettes, and shared words of kindness.” That moment of peace, recorded in history, was the result of peace, created by God as men sang about the Savior. In that moment the words of the angels to the shepherds was experienced when the guns of war fell silent. “Peace on earth and Goodwill to Mankind.” Became a momentary reality.
The message of “peace” to the shepherds is a reality the world still desires.
The Apostle John in his gospel does not tell about the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, but his written words tell us how the Creator of the Universe brings peace to the human heart. In our midweek Advent devotion for this coming week my devotion will focus on what Leonard Sweet calls “one of the most explosive passages in the bible.”
(read John 1:1-14) (replace the Word = ????? with “Intelligent Designer”)
In the Greek mind ????? is a way to explain the ordering of the universe, giving it form, gravity and meaning by a Creator, whose name they did not know. The best explanation they had was simply the word: “????? “ Leonard Sweet in his Advent devotional explains that word “logos” is another way of saying that the “DNA” of the Creator is in the person of Jesus, whose birth we celebrate. It is Jesus who brings peace to the human heart.
“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son….” We know His name was Jesus, thus, John can write: “Not that we loved God first but God loved us first and sent His son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (I John 4:10)
Let me read verse 10 this way. The “intelligent designer” was in the world that He had created. He came to his own human race, which He created. But they did not receive Him.” The ?????, The Intelligent Designer of the universe became flesh and dwelt among us. He pitched His tent with us for 33 years that He might pay in His own blood the debt we owe God because of our broken ethics and broken commandments. “We have experienced His glory.”
Why would the Creator of the Universe do such a thing? Hebrews 2:14 (read)
This is why He came. This is the peace of Advent and Christmas. He came to bring peace between human beings and Himself through faith in Jesus.
The announcement of Jesus’s birth was delivered to shepherds who lived on the fringe of society, in the fields, watching their sheep by night. If a king were born to the world, you would expect these shepherds to be the last ones to know about it.
Yet, the angels told them that peace was coming to the earth for those on whom God’s favor rested. Shepherds in first century Israel were individuals who existed on the fringe of society. They were considered stinky, dirty, and untrustworthy. They lived on their own for months as they traveled with their flocks.
It would have been shocking to the first readers of the book of Luke that these were the people God chose to entrust with such an important message.
What a shocking message! God’s favor was even on the shepherds. They were being offered peace; and if it could be given to them, then that is good news for a world in turmoil!
Maybe like many of you my wife and I often purchase Christmas ornaments from the various places we have traveled. On one of our trips, and we found a pewter ornament with the traditional “holy family” with the script: “Peace On Earth.” I love it because whenever I take it out of the storage container from the garage to place it on the tree, I am reminded of what this season is all about.
When we receive the gift of forgiveness that is offered to us by faith, our friendship with our Creator is restored. We become friends of God and He offers us His power, through the Holy Spirit, to help us navigate the difficulties of life. Some may believe that being made right with God means they will never face any problems. This is not the case.
Pastor and speaker Dr. Tony Evans says it like this: “Peace does not mean you won’t have any problems. Peace means that your problems won’t have you.”
The peace offered to those on whom God’s favor rests does not equate to the absence of conflict. We may still have circumstances that don’t go our way or challenging relationships to navigate. What it does promise is the presence of God in our lives; and if we listen to the voice of His Holy Spirit, there is nothing we should fear. Peace becomes our reality.
Unfortunately for the many people who desire peace in their home, Christmas will remain a “crazy” time if they do not have the Savior’s peace in their heart.
Our human story which began in the Garden of Eden. It was a perfect place of peace, which only a perfect God with an overwhelming love for His children can create. Tragically, the Lord's love was not returned with the same intensity it was given. When a seductive suggestion was made to our first ancestors, they thought an improvement on their present situation could be had, so they turned on their Creator and sinned.
As they had been warned, at that moment everything changed. The peace and harmony of the Garden had been disturbed, and they would never again be able to restore it. Pain, sorrow, and heartbreak found a new home, and death began to stalk the globe.
The first couple, and all who followed after them, should have been given a punishment which had no hope of parole. Temporal and eternal death was their failed future. At least it should have been, but the merciful God decided to write another story, which held out the possibility of another ending.
This story still called for death, but now the death sentence would fall upon God's Son, who was promised to enter this world to fulfill the Law, resist temptation, and serve as our perfect substitute. For hundreds upon hundreds of years, that promise was explained and illuminated through the pens of inspired prophets. Those writers told us where God's Son would be born and how He would die. His mother, without complete understanding of all that was happening to her heard the words of the angel: “Do not be afraid. You shall give birth to a Son and you shall give Him the name Jesus.” “..for He will save God’s people from their sins.”
This year I received a new type of card calling for 'peace on earth.' Inside these non-religious, politically-correct cards there were song verses, words, and poems which encouraged all of us, in a fortune cookie kind of style, to behave, be gentle, be kind, be caring, and compassionate. But that's as far as those cards went. These cards fell short of the mark. Not one of them could tell us how to convert those lofty hopes, dreams, and desires into tangible peace on earth.
There are many that believe they will have peace when they have just the right job which gives influence, prestige, power, security; you name it, most will find that the peace their heart longed for slips through their grasp like water, for their soul is still thirsty. The writer of Psalm 42 understood: “ like the deer who pants water so my soul thirst for the living God.”
One of my favorite passages the explains the “shalom” the Hebrew word for “peace” with God was written by the Apostle Paul. “For God was pleased to have all of His fullness (DNA) dwell in Him (Jesus) and through Him reconcile to Himself all things whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood shed on the cross. …. He has reconciled you (and me) by Christ’s (logos) physical body through death to present you (and me) holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation.”
This is the true peace of the Advent child whose birth we celebrate at Christmas. Paul also writes: “We have been justified by faith in Christ, therefore we have “peace” with God.” (Romans 5:1)
As we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, may we enjoy the peace we have with God through Christ. And may we be given a foretaste of the peace on earth that is yet to come.
